


Prized Time

by Shadow15



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Abuse, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Depression, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-05-20 02:41:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14886086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow15/pseuds/Shadow15
Summary: When Thanos comes after the Tesseract, he takes Loki with him.  He's left with Ebony Maw, so it comes as a surprise when Tony Stark stumbles upon him on the ship, half dead and in desperate need of help.  Despite their past interactions, he isn't cruel enough to leave the poor thing to suffer any further.  The only problem is, what starts off as looking after him until they can get him back to his brother, ends in fighting over him rather than FOR him.





	1. Chapter 1

Loki should have known that, from the moment Thanos had boarded the Asgardians’ ship and slaughtered half the people on it, he wasn’t going to get away unscathed.  He’d anticipated a slow, painful death from the Titan, particularly for his role in the attack on New York he had failed - what he  _ hadn’t  _ expected, however, was for the crushing hand around his throat that deprived him of all oxygen until his mind went fuzzy and most of his vision blackened.  

He wasn’t unconscious, but what little reasoning he was capable of at the time wished he was as he felt his body being tossed away carelessly into the wall like trash.  

In Thanos’ eyes, he probably  _ was  _ trash.  

He could hear his brother screaming against the gag, thrashing in his restraints to break free and help him, just as he always had; Thor, the big brother perfect in everyone’s eyes who Loki could  _ never  _ live up to, no matter how hard he’d tried.  

“Take him with you.” Was Thanos’ command to his minions.  “Do with him as you wish.” 

Loki’s eyes fluttered closed as he felt someone grab him by the hair and drag him along the blood-stained floors, through the many corpses of people he had once known and briefly ruled over, and away from his brother’s ever-increasing erratic thrashing.  

“ _ Loki! _ ” 

Thor had done it.  Loki didn’t know if he had broken out on his own or he’d been released, but none of that mattered; whatever had happened, his brother couldn’t save him.  Thor was too injured to do any more than drag himself along the ground with no hope of rescuing his precious little brother, and all he could do was watch tearfully the abduction of the only person he had left.

Loki’s vision was clearing now that he could get oxygen again, but after the crushing hand around his neck, he knew he was going nowhere; he could feel that bones had been shattered and arteries burst, and briefly, the thought of finishing the job himself and throwing his head to the side to snap his neck properly crossed his mind.  

He didn’t do it, though; he was too cowardly, and he knew everyone else knew it as well.  

The last thing that crossed his mind as the Asgardian ship was blown up was his brother, alone in his final moments and now gone completely, and a single tear rolled down his cheek before something heavy slammed into his head and everything went black.  


	2. Chapter 2

Loki’s eyes drifted open reluctantly at the voices he could hear.  Everything was foggy to him, his world hazy and confusing, and nothing made sense.  It didn’t  _ sound  _ like Ebony Maw outside his room, but still…

How could he trust himself when he was struggling to remember his own name?

One thing Loki  _ was  _ certain of was that it was a group of voices now, not just Ebony Maw’s cruel snarls.  Was that supposed to make him feel better or worse, though? Loki wasn’t sure, and he didn’t care to find out.  He closed his eyes again and tried to go back to sleep.

As hard as Loki had tried, it was now pointless to attempt any further as his eyes cracked open at his door opening and he came face-to-face with a child.  Great. Now Loki was  _ hallucinating _ .  As if things couldn’t get any worse…

“Mr. Stark?!” 

Loki sighed.  He wouldn’t have cared too much if the hallucination was silent, but it had a voice, and it was too loud for his aching head.  He keened softly and tried to curl up into a ball to escape the pain. 

“What is it, kid?” 

Loki’s keening grew louder as his hallucination grew more vivid.  He didn’t open his eyes this time; he was sure that if he did so, the light would only make his head feel like it was ready to explode.  

“Shit.  Kid, stay  _ away  _ from him!” 

Somewhere in the back of Loki’s mind, he knew he’d heard that voice somewhere before, but there was too much pain for him to care enough to pinpoint where exactly.  He tried to tug his arm away from the bedhead his wrist was handcuffed to, but all it did was cut further into his wounded flesh. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and his pride no longer cared to hide the fact.

“Loki…” The hallucination was  _ beside  _ him now; Loki could tell from how close the voice was.  He shuddered when he felt cool metal on his body, and the only thought that run through his mind was that he’d never known he could  _ feel  _ hallucinations.  “Loki, do you remember me?” 

An unintelligible murmur left Loki’s lips.  His head moved side-to-side slightly, but still, his eyes remained tightly shut.  He heard a new voice mumble something he couldn’t quite decipher, and then there was a loud bang and his arm  _ finally  _ dropped to his side.  He moaned loudly. 

Fingers touched the top of his head, parting his hair and ghosting across his scalp.  He knew hallucinations weren’t supposed to do this, but what else was he supposed to do?  Think that someone had finally come to rescue him? That his  _ brother  _ had come back for him?  Thor was  _ dead _ , his body probably decayed and floating through space somewhere by now.  

Loki mumbled again.

“It’s a head wound.” That voice again.  A single finger sliding along his scalp and leaving pain in its wake.  “He’s been struck across the head. Perhaps multiple times. He’s lucky he’s Asgardian; there is dried blood pooled around him and a normal human would not have survived this kind of split in their head.” 

Finally, Loki cracked his eyes open.  He vaguely recognised the two adults, but the child in the doorway was lost on his memory.  The man of iron he remembered fighting against. The man with the red cloak was much harder to place, however.  He looked to the metal man, and he slurred, “I gave up my sceptor… Rem’ber…?” 

“He has  _ some  _ memory; that’s good,” the cloaked man murmured.  “I need to examine him a bit more… Tony, take the kid and work out how to fly this thing, will you?” 

“Come on, kid.” Loki’s eyes fluttered closed again, and his mouth hung open as he listened to the metal man walking back to the child.  “Let’s work out how to fly this donut.” 

Loki didn’t know what the cloaked man wanted with him, and he couldn’t remain conscious to find out.  The darkness overwhelmed him, and whatever plans the newcomer had for him, Loki knew he was powerless to stop them.

* * *

 

When Loki’s eyes next opened, his head was clearer and he was conscious that he was no longer laying on that bed with a mattress far too hard for his delicate back.  The second thing he noticed was that he was sitting, with his back against the wall but a blanket draped over his lap. And the final thing he realised was that there was a moving body sitting next to him, but for the first time in what felt like forever, it didn’t seem to have any intentions of causing him pain.

Loki opened his eyes wider and slowly moved himself into a straighter sitting position.  He blinked. His prior hallucinations had apparently been real as the child he had first seen was beside him, fidgeting with his suit.  

“You’re awake.” The child was smiling at Loki, and all Loki wanted was to curl up somewhere and die.  His head wasn’t hurting nearly as bad as it had been before, but there was still a dull throbbing in his skull that made it hard to focus.  “You’ve been asleep for a while. Mr. Stark told me to keep an eye on you.” 

Ah, yes.  Tony Stark.  The man of iron.  His brother’s friend.  And one of the Midgardians he hated most.  But despite all that, Loki couldn’t find the energy in him to feel driven by that emotion.  

Instead, Loki curled in on himself and gave the child a tired look.  “And you are…?” 

“Oh, sorry.” The child moved ever closer, and Loki couldn’t help but shrink away.  “Peter Parker. O-or, you might be using our made-up names, too. If that’s the case…  Then I’m Spider-Man.” 

“I do not remember you from New York…” Loki muttered.  

“No, we haven’t met,” Peter assured.  “Mr. Stark said you -”

“- Kid!” 

Loki jumped at the shout that echoed through the chambers of what appeared to be a control room.  He frowned deeply and cringed when Tony Stark himself thundered towards them, and his eyes darted around desperately in search of the Migardian’s green friend.  “...” 

“Kid, I told you to stay  _ away  _ from him; he’s  _ dangerous _ !” Tony reached down to force Peter to his feet.  He gave Loki a distrustful glare before he looked the boy up and down in search of any wounds that hadn’t been there ten minutes ago.  

“I did nothing to him…” Loki mumbled.  He stared at his knees as his hands came to fumble together.  “...I… have no current intention of causing anyone distress… I just wish to return to my brother’s side…” 

For the briefest of seconds, a look of empathy crossed Tony’s face before he hardened his emotions and forced out, “Thor’s  _ dead,  _ Loki.  Thanos got to him.”

Loki closed his eyes.  He’d never thought he’d feel numb to the confirmation of his fears, but here he was, having never felt as empty as he did right now.  “...Unfortunate…” 

“Considering how many times you’ve tried to kill him, I’m not surprised to see how little you care,” Tony growled.  He looked back to Peter now. “Kid, don’t go near him, alright? You can’t trust this guy.”

Loki lifted his gaze to stare directly into Tony’s eyes.  “Yet you freed me. I was a prisoner at your mercy in a room designed to allow me no opportunities for escape.  Here, there could be no stopping me if I desired you harm.” 

“Yeah, well, we’re a lot of things, but we aren’t monsters,” Tony muttered.  He grabbed Peter’s wrist and turned around. “Kid, Strange is on to something over here.  Forget Loki. There’s no helping that guy.”

“My brother didn’t believe so,” Loki called after him.  Tony stopped in his tracks. “My brother gave me all the chances in the world to redeem myself.  Over and over I betrayed him. In the end, he left me on Sakaar. But still he did not give up on me.  He left the key to my freedom within my grasp to catch up with him. At the very end… When it mattered most…  I allied with my brother. ...I like to think that in his final moments, I may have made him proud that the redemption he had always wished to see for me had finally happened…” 

Tony remained silent for the longest of times before he finally started moving again.  He didn’t speak, but Loki didn’t need him to. Tony considered Thor a valuable friend; that much had been clear during the attack on New York.  If only to honour Thor’s memory, Tony wanted to trust in his friend’s judgement. 

Quite honestly, if Loki  _ did  _ have any intentions of going back to his chaotic self, it certainly wouldn’t be any time soon.  For now, all he wanted was to die. 

* * *

 

The pounding in Loki’s head had returned.  His knees had been drawn to his chest and he was bent over them as he gripped his hair hard enough to tear chunks out.  He didn’t know what had brought the onslaught on, but if he had to guess, it was the way the ship they were on had crash landed and thrown his body about violently.  

Someone was near him again.  Through the haze in his mind he recognised Peter’s suit, and though he could acknowledge that someone was speaking, he couldn’t make out specific words.  Then Peter left, and the yelling and banging replaced the semi-quiet he had been relishing, but why this was occurring, Loki couldn’t put his finger on it.  

The pounding in his head grew worse until he was screaming, collapsed onto the ground and writhing in agony.  Someone picked him up and threw him over their shoulder, but the sudden movement made his vision go black and he was powerless to hold back the bile climbing up his throat.  He vomited, and he couldn’t stop until he was a sweaty, quivering mess. 

Loki became conscious of a nosebleed after that.  His ear canals also felt suspiciously warm and wet, but he couldn’t focus on it for too long; he was being carried now, and each step that was taken caused him more and more misery until he’d blacked out 

He’d came to, tucked tightly into a warm bed that didn’t reek of dried blood and suffering.  Even the room itself was much more livelier, with light drifting in through the window and assorted furniture scattered around the room that was more than welcoming after the empty, dark,  _ soulless  _ room he had been kept prisoner in for however long.

There were still voices, but this time they were outside the closed door.  Their words were easier to make out now, something about keeping him on a Milano - whatever  _ that  _ was - for the meantime until they could leave again.

Loki closed his eyes as he drifted his hand upwards to play with the bandage around his head.  The pain had dulled into persistent throbbing again, but that, too, was welcomed as he listened to the group of voices that seemed unaware of his eavesdropping.

Out of the six voices Loki could pick out, only two of them would be returning after the inevitable devastation ready to strike.  


	3. Chapter 3

Loki’s eyes cracked open when he heard voices approaching once more.  He made out Stark’s voice, and the loud gruff of another he didn’t clearly recognise.  The third and final voice that accompanied them, female this time, didn’t match up to the only other female that he’d heard earlier.  

Loki frowned.  The pounding in his head hadn’t ceased, but he was still clear-headed enough to know that something had happened out there, because though he couldn’t speak for the other two, he knew enough of Tony Stark to understand that the man didn’t  _ do  _ reserved. 

He groaned quietly as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.  He pondered for a while if he should get up and investigate, and while the thought of leaving them to be depressed on their own was tempting, Loki wasn’t sure he had it in him to be so heartless.  

Out of the soft bed Loki rose, but it wasn’t easily; his body ached in protest, and as his vision spotted, he found himself stumbling from lightheadedness.  But still, he made it out into what seemed to be a meeting area of sorts.

“What are you moping about, Stark…?” Loki grumbled weakly.  The look Tony gave him in response was murderous, but he didn’t get a verbal response - not from Tony, anyway. 

“His son has just been killed.” It was such an emotionless delivery from the blue woman Loki had yet to meet, he almost thought she didn’t care - but then he recalled, the same kind of pain in his own tone, the kind where it hurt so much, he  _ had  _ to pretend he held no emotion.  

Loki lowered his gaze.  He could understand how Tony must be feeling; to have lost  _ Thor _ …  “Condolences…” 

Loki used that time to look around at the three.  They were all hurting from the looks of things, the brunet he hadn’t met either barely holding back tears as he sat, slumped in his seat and staring ahead blankly.  In the back of his mind, Loki wondered about who the other two had lost, and how much they meant to them - but who was he kidding? They’d  _ all  _ lost loved ones, and Loki was no longer sure he could hide his pain.

“It hurts, doesn’t it…” Loki looked to his lap.  He gave a deep frown as he considered his words carefully.  “...To feel that you are alone, everyone ripped away from you without understanding  _ why _ …” 

A single tear rolled down the brunet’s cheek as his eyes flickered to Loki.  He grasped tightly the knees of his pants as he forced out in a choked tone, “I’ve lost  _ everyone,  _ man…  I have no one left…  Everyone I’ve ever loved…   _ Gone _ …” 

Loki lowered his eyelids sympathetically.  “It hurts. I understand. I’ve lived most of my life feeling alone…  But for the first time in my life, I truly  _ am  _ alone…  I lost my brother…  And all my people…”

Tony looked to their blue companion.  Quietly, so damn  _ quietly,  _ he requested, “Can you fly us out of here, Nebula…?” 

Nebula nodded.  She left without another word, leaving Tony to look to the brunet next.

“Steady, Quill…” Tony tried to comfort, but it was hard to do so when every  _ inch  _ of his existence grieved for so much.  “You okay?” 

The tears came harder for the one named Quill now.  He raised his arm to try and wipe them away with the sleeve of his jacket, but it was useless; he only smeared them over his face as a sob escaped him.  

Loki stood up, uncomfortable with so much emotion around him.  He knew not to say anything; he would likely only exacerbate the problems, and clearly nobody was in the mood for that right now - himself included; had he learnt a little  _ humility  _ from Thor before…  

Before  _ that _ …?  

“Shit, man, I just…” Quill stood up, hiding his face with his arm.  His voice was muffled, but still, he forced out, “I’ll be in my room…” 

Loki watched him leave before he turned to Tony.  He gave a sigh before he extended his hand.

Tony stared at the god as if he’d grown a second hand.  Distrustingly, he gruffed, “The hell is that?” 

“It is what you Midgardians do for a temporary treaty, yes?” Loki rolled his eyes.  “I am offering an agreement I will leave you lot alone if you do the same for me.” 

“Your word means little.” Tony’s eyes stayed focused on the outstretched hand for several seconds before he reluctantly shook it.  “But for now, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” 

Loki hummed.  He raised his hand to touch the  top of his head before he mumbled, “My head is pounding worse than if the Hulk smashed me…”

“Go and lay down.  You’re going to need it.” Tony’s face twisted through so many emotions, Loki didn’t know what one to focus on.  “Might need your help slaughtering that purple bastard.” 

Loki nodded.  He held no complaints at being told what to do for once; he  _ was  _ tired, and he  _ did  _ need the rest.  Besides, the bed he’d been in earlier was comfortable, and his body still ached… 

“Goodnight, Stark…” 

“...Night…” 

* * *

Loki didn’t know what time it was when he was awoken by the sounds of someone crying.  It sounded close by, as if it were coming from the room next to his - but did he care enough to go and investigate it?

Apparently he did, as he found himself getting out of bed and going to investigate it. 

As he’d suspected, it  _ was  _ coming from next door; once the door had opened and Loki had stepped in, that became perfectly clear.  

“You are crying rather loudly.” Loki knew full-well how rude he was being, but he didn’t know how to approach the situation; he’d spent so much of his life alone, the thought of comforting someone was alien.  When all he received in response was silence, Loki tried again. “Quill.” 

Finally, Loki had gotten the other’s attention.  Quill sniffed back his tears to shoot Loki a glare from under the lamp light.  “Don’t call me  _ Quill,  _ damnit; my name’s  _ Peter _ !” 

Loki blinked, unfazed.  “Alright. You are crying loudly and you have disturbed me,  _ Peter _ .” 

Peter grumbled something under his breath, but still, Loki could hear the sobs escaping.  Loki was tempted to yell, to threaten if he had to to shut Peter up for the night - but where was his desire to act accordingly?  

It took Loki himself by surprise when his feet moved him forward and turned him around so he was sitting on the bed next to Peter.  He stared at his knees in silent contemplation, trying so hard to recall the way his mother used to comfort him as a child. He wished he didn’t, though; the thought of his mother when he was already feeling so vulnerable brought tears of his own to the surface of his eyes.  

But finally, Loki acted.  Painstakingly slow, his hand extended to Peter’s head, and his fingers dragged through soft brown locks in circular patterns.  Peter stiffened beneath the touch, but he didn’t pull away. Eventually, he relaxed beneath it. 

“Who did you lose?” Loki didn’t recognise his own voice; the softness in his tone was so foreign, he couldn’t acknowledge it even came from him.  

Peter’s eyes locked onto Loki’s.  Loki could decipher the oceans of emotion within them; exhaustion, agony…   _ Loss _ …  Loki could see it in there; the same kind of depression he himself had survived with for so much of his life.  Peter was as tired of life as  _ he  _ had been before all this - and in his gut, Loki was sure it had been that way for a while now.  

Finally, Peter’s eyes stopped searching Loki’s, and he whispered, “ _ Everyone _ …” 

It was no exaggeration.  Peter truly  _ had  _ lost everyone in his life - whether it be now or in the past was irrelevant; Peter was alone, and that was something Loki could understand  _ far  _ too intimately.  

Loki closed his eyes.  His hand never ceased its movements in Peter’s hair, but even so, it seemed to be enough.  Peter’s sniffles soon died out, and the deep depression wafting off him was predominated by exhaustion.  

Even when Peter eventually fell into a fitful sleep, Loki didn’t leave; he just sat where he was, playing with Peter’s hair as he pondered over his life.  When he eventually slipped into sleep as well, he was startled to wake that morning and find that Peter had, sometime through the night, curled up against him.

But, as Loki quickly realised, it wasn’t a bad thing.  In fact, it was the most comfort he had had in so long.  


End file.
